Well, is this as good as it ever got for Franz Ferdinand?
On the evidence so far, the answer is probably "yes," I'm afraid.
Of course, I was intrigued upon hearing the Take Me Out/Matinee/Michael trio of singles and to read in all the broadsheets of their considered likeness to all-time Scottish greats Orange Juice, The Fire Engines and Josef K. Whilst the Fire Engines influence is easily detectable, the Josef K one is less so and the Orange Juice one is non-existent! I'd imagine that these Franz boys are admirers of the Monochrome Set and (yes!) Blondie as well, though.
I'm unable to award it 4.5 stars and I'm not giving it 4, so that's why it gets 5 stars. There's isn't a duff track on the album - most are excellent and some (the aforementioned singles + "This Fire") are superlative. The difficult bit may have been to repeat such art. Read full review

This cd is the best ever releast from the scottish band Franz Ferdindand.
When it was released it launched the new wave band in all Europe and in Us.
It is easy to listent to, it makes you dance.
I decided to buy it because if you love rock and roll it is a must have!

Arty post-punk meets electro-indie as the Glaswegian quartet stray a little bit out of their comfort zone – and the result is January’s contender for album of the year.
Calling this a return to form would be doing a disservice to 2005’s You Could Have It So Much Better, but seven years and three albums in, the boys have discovered synths – and it feels like the last piece of a jigsaw has slotted in.
Lead single Ulysses starts as it means to go on, with whispery, spoken vocals turning into a thumping beat and catchy la-la-la chorus.. You Girls, one of half-a-dozen tracks that could be future singles, harks back to the band’s debut, with angular guitar hooks and a pounding bassline, while What She Came For starts off like Blondie and finishes with a headbanging 40-second rock wig-out.
I’m not too sure about the hard trance that finishes off the eight-minute psychedelia of Lucid Dreams, and the album tails off over the last two tracks, but these are minor criticisms. Read full review